Reticent is a good word to sum them both up. Not shy, not shy at all, yet in each you could sense a certain unwillingness to reveal more personal information than necessary.
When the pair, Ellie and James, arranged a meal out in a smart Italian restaurant, it was cause for some mirth and speculation amongst their small circle of friends.
‘He’s bound to slurp his spaghetti and get it all down his front,’ someone suggested.
And this wasn’t an outlandish idea, because James was well known to be rather clumsy.
In the event, it was Ellie who scored the first hit in a long line of stains-to – be – hidden- or-ignored. Reaching for the Parmesan, one of the ties of her pussy-bowed shirt willfully dipped into her ragu. Panic. She rushed to the ladies, having to pause to ask for directions and then forced to make a semi-circular tour of the restaurant, and thrust the offending material under a cold tap. The solids came away easily but the red stain was stubborn. In the end she stuck the tie down the Dyson hand dryer and retied the bow so that the stained bit was behind the clean material. Phew.
‘All good?’ James was rather gentle as well as reticent.
‘Yes fine, thanks.’ Ellie was in no way about to explain her rapid exit and was drawing heavily on her reticence.
The next fixture was a meal round at Ellie’s. No drippy sauces and absolutely nothing red was on the menu. They took the last of their wine into the sitting room and Ellie went to make some coffee. James leant over to look at the bookshelf and inevitably kicked over his almost full glass. Nothing red? Well nothing except the wine, which was soaking its way into the carpet, which was hardly light-coloured yet nothing near the colour of red wine.
Remedial action: put salt on the wine. Blot it all up with tissues. Throw tissues in bog. And, most effectively, move the furniture ever so slightly to hide the disaster.
So life went on full of hidden stains. Baby sick took its toll down backs and shoulders, discreetly (but not very effectively ) wiped away. Nappies leaked and left yellow stains on clothes and furnishings. Felt pens did their work on walls and tables. Blood flowed from cut knees onto clean clothes. Grass stubbornly refused to budge in spite of several washes. Life got messier.
‘We used to have such a clean, tidy home. It was never like this before the kids invaded
us, now we have marks on everything’.
James was laughing now, ‘Yeah, and you never got food stains on your new blouse and I never messed up your carpet with red wine? ’
Ellie was a bit taken aback but soon saw the funny side and they had a good giggle about their undeclared stains.
The tide of reticence was rolling back to reveal the era of full disclosure.
